Every Wednesday and Saturday, starting October 17 and in the next 30 days, Mastercard and Maestro contactless cardholders of any bank and owners of digital cards in mobile phones will be able to pay their tickets in public transport vehicles in Belgrade at promotional prices of RSD 1, 2 and 3 instead of the usual prices applicable for contactless card payments.
This action is carried out by Apex solution and Mastercard, with the technical support of AIK Bank, and it follows the excellent results achieved during the first promotional period that lasted from August 15 to September 15 when, on average, on every promotional day, 126% more contactless payments were realized than in the days before the campaign.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays during the promotional month, Mastercard and Maestro contactless cardholders, both issued in Serbia and the cards issued abroad, are eligible for special promotional prices for the transportation ticket – within a single zone, the ticket will cost only RSD 1, or RSD 2 and 3 in several zones.
Contactless payments made with payment cards in public transport are done in the same way as validating BusPlus tickets or performing any kind of contactless payments in stores – by simply tapping the card at the bottom half of the validator marked with the contactless symbol, at a distance of no more than 4 centimetres, after which the light and sound signal from the validator confirm that the ticket has been successfully paid. On the validator itself, passengers can select the zone they are travelling to, so the entire process is quick and easy to use.
Card payments in public transport are safe thanks to various protection mechanisms, starting with a chip technology that allows exchange of only the minimum encrypted data between the card and the validator, while for each payment a unique code is created that cannot be used for another transaction with the same card, so that one ticket is charged only once, even if the card is accidentally tapped against the terminal several times. The card remains in the hands of the user all the time, and the additional element of control and security during payment is the fact that if the payment card and BusPlus card are tapped against the validator, the validator will always read the BusPlus card only.
“Citizens want simple, convenient and secure solutions at every step of their day and we are pleased that Mastercard contactless technology has been accepted as one such solution. The excellent results achieved in the previous promotional month, as well as the fact that the use of contactless payments in Serbia increased by 154% compared to the previous year, clearly show that the market is ready for further innovations in the direction of digital, cashless payments, thus the new campaign in public transport is a great opportunity for fellow citizens to try the benefits of our contactless technology at attractive prices”, said Jelena Ristic, Country Manager for Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina at Mastercard.
Mastercard contactless payments were enabled in public transportation vehicles in Belgrade in January this year, and in seven months, the number of users of the service that ranked the Serbian capital among the 100 most modern smart cities in the world, recorded steady growth.
Secretariat for Public Transport of the city of Belgrade has supported this action in order to increase ticketing in the vehicles of public transport. The means equal to a ticket price defined by the Decree on defining the price of transportation service in the public transport on the territory of Belgrade, are paid to the budget of the City of Belgrade.
For more info on the campaign, visit http://bit.ly/2ZJ1Clu
